small farm, too many ideas

Menu

Death Warmed Over

I’m self diagnosing. We all have the flu how can it travel so quickly from Miwa to me (and probably to Q) to my mom then to Ben in the span of about a week. So not fun. Yes, we are the Sick House. Luckily Ru0chan is only a bit sick… yay for nursing!

However this is not the reason I am posting. Apparently it is not, I repeat not in the White House’s budget to build a Death Star. Here is the official response to a petition to build the Death Star (link here but I copied the actual article into this post) and the CBC article link here. Science fiction is actually science fact, it just hasn’t happened yet! May the force be with you. (Also check out Commander Chris Hadfield’s twitter account @cmdr_hadfield for amazing shots of the earth from the International Space station…. I particularily like this one)

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget